


Do You Have A Sunburn, Or Are You Always This Hot?

by stevergrsno (noxlunate)



Series: Happy Steve Bingo Fills [9]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Happy Steve Bingo, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sunburn, technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-05
Updated: 2018-10-05
Packaged: 2019-07-25 11:03:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16196243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noxlunate/pseuds/stevergrsno
Summary: “I have a healing factor,” Steve whines, like somehow the world will hear his insistence and rid him of his sunburn.“Serum or not, you’ve still got those pale ass Irish roots Rogers.” Bucky says, possibly a little more smug than he should be in the face of his best friend’s misery.“Super serum. Healing factor.”Steve insists as he twists around on the couch, attempting to find the position that puts the least amount of skin in contact withanything. Bucky has watched this song and dance what feels like hundreds of times in his life, and whether Steve’s big or small he’s never quite been able to look away.“Irish roots.”Bucky insists right back as he throws a bottle of aloe right at Steve’s head. Steve, the asshole, has the gall to catch it.In which Steve Rogers absolutely does not get sunburnt (except for how he absolutely does.)





	Do You Have A Sunburn, Or Are You Always This Hot?

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Ты всегда такой горячий или просто перегрелся?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17607632) by [WTF_Starbucks_2019](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WTF_Starbucks_2019/pseuds/WTF_Starbucks_2019)



> For the prompt "hurt/comfort" on my Happy Steve Bingo card. This took three tries to write and for a 1500 word fic I think that's impressive. ANYWAYS, I'm pretty fond of the final outcome and I hope you are too!

The most hysterical part of the whole super serum thing is and always will be the fact that Steven Grant Rogers still turns into a goddamn tomato in the sun.

Even more hilarious than the fact that Steven Grant Rogers turns into a tomato is the fact that he absolutely refuses to admit to this fact.

“I have a healing factor. I’m genetically engineered perfection.” Steve says when Bucky waves the bottle of sunscreen in his face, “I don’t need sunscreen.”

And then later, when he’s red and hurting, “I have a healing factor,” Steve whines, like somehow the world will hear his insistence and rid him of his sunburn.

“Serum or not, you’ve still got those pale ass Irish roots Rogers.” Bucky says, possibly a little more smug than he should be in the face of his best friend’s misery.

“ _Super serum. Healing factor.”_ Steve insists as he twists around on the couch, attempting to find the position that puts the least amount of skin in contact with _anything._ Bucky has watched this song and dance what feels like hundreds of times in his life, and whether Steve’s big or small he’s never quite been able to look away.

“ _Irish roots.”_ Bucky insists right back as he throws a bottle of aloe right at Steve’s head. Steve, the asshole, has the gall to catch it.

 

The next time Steve ends up hopelessly pitiful due to his own stubbornness Sam happens to be there. Bucky likes to pretend he hates Sam, but in the face of Steve’s misery he can certainly team up with Bird Brain.

“What’s with you and his _Irish roots,_ man?” Bird Brain asks when Bucky reminds Steve of them for probably the hundredth time while throwing a bottle of aloe at his head. Steve, the mess of a human being, had been too distracted by something Sam was doing and it’d smacked satisfyingly against the top of Steve’s hard as hell head.

Bucky is still a little proud of his timing. And himself. And Sam. And the world.

“Have you not looked at Rogers? Have you not seen his _beard?”_ Bucky asks, waving a hand at Steve and his currently nicely shaven face like this should be all the answer Sam needs. And it _should be._

“His beard is the same color as his hair?” Sam says, more a question than a statement. He’s looking a little dubious around the edges. _Good._

“Yeah, sure, before he attacks it with Just For Men to get all the red out of it.”

“ _Bucky!”_ Steve squawks and Bucky smugly side steps the aloe bottle that’s intended for his head.

 

Sometimes, like when they go to the beach and Steve falls asleep on a blanket in the sand, looking so at peace it makes Bucky wish for an instant they could freeze themselves just like this, content and _happy._ Sometimes, Bucky will carefully pop open the bottle of sunscreen he’s used on himself like _a sane normal person_ and with quick, gentle hands slather it over Steve’s skin while he’s sleeping.

This inevitably backfires on him, because Steve will later find himself with safely undamaged skin and will look at Bucky and say “See? I told you I wouldn’t burn. _Super serum.”_ with such smugness that Bucky will want to strangle him a little even if it means he might be down a best friend for it.

He never does. For some reason he always lets Steve pretend he believes that the serum’s made him invincible to sunburns.

If he perpetually leaves a tiny patch of skin without sunscreen so that he can watch Steve scratching at it a day or two later as it heals, well, that’s for his own sanity really.

 

He reaches his breaking point sometime near the end of August after they’ve gone to soak up the last of the summer and Steve is suffering from it and his own stubbornness.

Steve is fruitlessly attempting to slather the middle of his back in aloe, swiping ineffectively at his back with his giant shovel hands and making almost but not quite whimpering noises that should absolutely not be affecting Bucky the way they are. _Especially_ not when Steve looks more sunburn then person.

“You’re an idiot Steve.” Bucky says as he snatches the aloe from Steve’s hands and shoves him down into the couch with his metal hand.

Steve lets out a happy noise at the touch of cool metal to his skin and Bucky maybe spares an almost fond thought for the appendage.

“I don’t sunburn.” Steve mutters into the couch cushion.

“Right. What do you call this then?” Bucky asks as he squirts the cold gel straight onto Steve’s back and earns a yelp of surprise from Captain Tomato himself.

“A freak punishment from nature.” Steve says, still half muffled by their couch.

Bucky’s fond of their couch. It’s bright yellow and they found it on craigslist after Clint specifically told them never to go there.

They had, of course, immediately gone there. At least once they’d figured out it was a website and not a place.

“Right. Right. Because nature likes to freakishly punish you every time you’re outside for more than an hour without proper sun protective. That’s exactly what it is.” Bucky says, making sure his tone sounds as disbelieving as he can possibly make it, his hands smoothing the aloe gel over Steve’s back with a lot more gentleness than his current attitude would suggest he’s capable of.

Steve, Bucky learned at the tender age of 8 and kept learning for practically his entire life, doesn’t exactly respond well to things like _gentleness._ At least not outwardly. The trick is to tease the hell out of him, to be a giant asshole verbally while simultaneously forcing one’s care on him in other ways. In this case, the other ways involve gently applying aloe vera to his best friend’s back and then shoving him over with a “budge up asshole,” so that he can get his front too.

“Nature likes to punish me in a lot of ways.” Steve grumbles, his gaze fixed on Bucky above him.

“What?” Bucky asks, deeming his job finished and giving Steve’s ribs a pinch before he sits back on his haunches, wiping his hands on his jeans. “There we go, all done. I’ll apply more in an hour or two, just try not to scratch at it when it starts to itch.”

“You gonna kiss it to make it better, too?” Steve asks, and Bucky knows Steve. He more than knows Steve, he _knows_ Steve. And maybe there’s not a difference between knowing and _knowing_ to some people, but for Bucky there damn well is.

So Bucky knows when Steve’s saying something to tease Bucky for perpetually mother henning him, and when he’s saying something as a challenge. When he’s saying something to either get Bucky to do something he wants him to do or to make sure that if it pisses Bucky off he can claim that’s the outcome he wanted in the first place.

Bucky occasionally lives to disappoint, especially when it comes to people wanting him to do things- _anything,_ no matter the thing- but it’s a little harder with Steve. There’s honestly not a lot one can do to disappoint someone after you shot them and then left them on the side of a river and bailed for another continent for awhile.

Which is why  Bucky rises to meet the challenge, dips his head down and brushes a feather light kiss across Steve’s bright red chest.

Steve hisses in clear pain at the contact, even as he sinks a hand into Bucky’s hair to keep him close. “I didn't think that one through.”

“Do you ever think anything through?” Bucky responds, feeling a little like he’s on autopilot at this point. It’s too hard to think straight with Steve’s hand twisted in his hair and the ghost of his skin on his lips.

“I assume that there’s been at least some point in my life that I’ve thought at least one thing through.”

“Mmmh, I find that hard to believe, honestly.”

“Jesus christ, shut up and kiss me better.”

Bucky does, and then some.

 

“I’ll give you the best handjob of your life if you let me put sunscreen on you.” Bucky says, low and directly into Steve’s ear the next time they go to the beach and Steve’s started his whole ‘I can’t get sunburnt’ song and dance.

Steve has the nerve to visibly consider Bucky’s offer.

“Let me try that again. Put on your damn sunscreen Rogers. I didn’t spend years getting my brains ran through a meat grinder to end up in the 21st century watching my boyfriend molt.”

“That’s emotional manipulation.” Steve says in the way that means he doesn’t really mean it, he just wants to pretend he’s not going to do what Bucky wants him to do. What Bucky wants him to do, he’d like to remind the world, so that he doesn’t end up miserable later.

“Sure is pal. Now turn around and I’ll do your back.”

Steve listens for once, and later Bucky rewards him with exactly what he’d promised.

 

**Author's Note:**

> If you wanna come scream about things with me, find me [on tumblr!](http://stevergrsno.tumblr.com/tagged/my-writing)


End file.
